Now some pictures...

Of our evening passing of Providencia, Colombia...two of our "buddy boats" that ended up about 12 hours behind us...had this island as our destination...Then I decided the seas had calmed enough to put the fishing line out.......the Mahi mahi...smaller than we usually catch...but we were only going 5 knots... Oh, so tasty...and much easier to fillet when the seas are not so rough!! Through the explosives area...yes, that is our "rum line" with the boat to the right of the purple...the purple indicating radar picking up wave activity...and why does he always do this on my watch...can anybody explain that to me?? Ah, the good news...none of the big container ships go through the explosives area...so therefore I don't have to be so watchful for big ships...just not sure what I needed to be watchful for!! We sailed through the parking area for the container ships waiting to go through the canal...up to the red (on the right - out of the picture) and green (on the left - in the picture)! Turning the key on and taking a sharp right to stay out of the Canal shipping lanes but behind the retaining wall....and anchoring at the back of Shelter Bay Marina! Yes, we do have an actual slip now...but marina pictures will be for another day.

The bus is actually quite comfortable (room for 26) and air conditioned to go to the grocery... The bus driver uses an old air field as a road...then through the remains of the Sherman Military Base....To the Canal... over the canal bridges...It seems I am always taking pictures from the bus out the window....Locks...are locks....are locks...are locks...but this IS the Panama Canal......To the grocery store...Rey's is the one the bus take us to...The grocery store is fairly nice... In downtown Colon we have been warned many times that you are not to walk the streets...to always take a cab even if only a few blocks...not sure if this is to keep the cabs in business or not...but so far we have not tested it...The only time I took pictures was from the third floor of the Port Captains office while we were checking in...when I got directions on where to get photocopies from a gal at the bank...she actually came out of the building for me (with an armed guard outside) and told me specifically to go a block around to the left (two blocks out of the way) to another location for the copies...not to the right (which would have been shorter). So I did as she suggested...three different times I had to go get copies...down three flights of stairs...down two blocks and over two blocks...up three flights of stairs...I will say the gentleman that took the copies for me at the bank was absolutely WONDERFUL!!! We are now here legally! I also took pictures out the window of the cab...yes, my opinion too is that Colon is nothing to write home about...yet here I am writing about it...very dirty city...and as you can see in most of the above pictures (except at the park) even the locals don't walk along their own streets!!!